Last week, Nick Griffin — the head of the racist and fascist ‘British National’ Party — was given some air time on BBC’s “Question Period.” There were protests, and a lot of controversy.
Here is some selected coverage and commentary -
An article on the BBC web site -
“BNP support in poll sparks anger”
(Anti-BNP bias actually isn’t a problem that anyone should complain about.)
Brian Wheeler on the BBC web site -
“What did voters make of Griffin?”
(I’m not exactly recommending that article. I’m just pointing it out because I think it captures how the BBC airtime has tended to feed into the BNP.)
The live version is more fitting for this post. Live music is somewhat like photos of celebrities who aren’t wearing make-up — that is, celebrities who aren’t made up to look greater.
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Here are a few British monuments to figures who often have been presented as great people -
Of course, car drivers don’t alway ‘veg out’ (in one way or another) after they reach their destinations,
but some sort of zombie-like relaxation often is what people are rushing towards, isn’t it?
In fact, aren’t people more apt to want to tune out like that after rushing around in cars?
(This isn’t to say that people can’t think and watch TV at the same time, however. And it’s over the top to say that people who do rush toward some form of passive relaxation are headed “to nowhere.”)
“When President Bush responded to 9/11 and the subsequent economic downturn by ordering [Americans] to go shopping, many ignored him and instead went to the movies. That’s the reaction Hollywood depends on to make its pile - and the escapist impulse is nothing if not reliable. In five of the last seven recessions, box office sales have jumped. When the going gets tough, [people] watch films.
Today is no exception. Theaters are packed, as there is more craziness to flee from than ever.”
David Sirota (who evidently is focusing on the United States)
(in this article — where the author recommends films that offer some insight into goverment politics in general, and election campaigns in particular)
Matt Taibbi at RollingStone.com - “Economic Realities Are Killing Our Era of Fantasy Politics”
U.S. “election season will be packed with horserace media distractions, but [the U.S.] economic situation is becoming a matter of life and death.”
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The thing is, most Americans still are far, far, far more interested in the sort of media fare that you’ll find here: http://entertainment.msn.com
That’s an enormous understatement, actually.
“[NBC']s programming aims to deliver exploitable stupor to advertisers, not moral stimulants.”
“But imagine. Instead of wasting our time with those rosewater features about athletes’ personal survival tales, all of which sound the same, all of which would sound insultingly narcissistic in China’s context, tell us about the water and food rationing for the millions of farmers around Beijing so the games can lush on, tell us about Beijing’s once-great Chaobai River, dried-out by overuse and artificially refilled during the games with water from a plundered aquifer, tell us about the jailing of human rights leader Hu Jia, for ‘incitement to subvert state power,’ tell us about the confiscation of Muslims’ passports in Xinjiang to prevent pilgrimages to Mecca, give us a few snapshots into the lives of some of the 4 million forced to relocate from areas around Three Gorges Dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric power project.”
[ Note: This was written for London Indymedia, an alternative media project in London, Ontario ]
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Some ways in which the status quo is supported through mainstream media:
Little attention to ecology and nature (e.g. water depletion and pollution), let alone to the social causes and consequences of ‘environmental’ problems and proactive responses to these
Dominated through political economy (e.g. company “public relations” promotional efforts, including their press releases) that is largely centralized in the hands of the prominent few
Often uncritically parroting representatives of dominant organizations and institutions (e.g. government)
Favouring audiences who are more privileged (e.g. ‘whiter’), while degrading others (e.g. ‘Arabs,’ who often are presented as terrorists)
Staffed by groups who are more privileged (e.g. masculine)
